Dr. Rashida Mahran Issa Awad was born on November 5 1935 in Beni Suef (Egypt) and died was buried last November 2 2012 in Alexandria, the second largest city in Egypt, at age 78. She was known as Rashida Mahran.

In life and as it said: “Rashida Mahran had been one of several girl-friends, lovers of Yasser Arafat. Her merits must have been so great that, according to my information, the PA continues paying her a salary as a “Consul” even after death. What is not known to me is whether the money which the PA has spent under the name “Mahran” in its financial statements actually went to her or just disappeared in the bank accounts of the Palestinian Authority figures.

The PA has many fictitious and duplicate names registered on their payroll and in the financial statements which are submitted to Western countries, which pay their salaries, people who either do not exist at all, are deceased, are registered more than once under different names, are people who received a post on paper but were never actually employed.

Another aspect of the widespread culture of graft is that around the world there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of employees in the PA embassies who do nothing of value, people who engage in private work completely unrelated to their ostensible duties. Such people receive their posts at embassies because they are relatives of PA figures or know Dr. Ramzi Khouri, the head of the Palestinian National Fund, never on actual personal merits.

The PA, which depends on foreign financial aid from Americans, Europeans and other Western and Arab countries, is claiming that it has been unable to pay full salaries to its employees since months and that it faces a shortage of money and a “severe financial crisis” with a deficit equivalent to $30 million per month in addition to the funding deficit accumulated in previous years which it claims amounts to $535 million. This must be explained.

The PA derives its strength from its alliance with the United States and European countries in to provide so-called “security” for the israeli occupation, actually the occupation of Palestine by jewish US and EU citizens. The PA on its part uses this “alliance” to provide “security” to israel to milk the EU like a cow and to receive financial “aid” from western (jewish-controlled) countries around the world who are allies to Israel.

The benefits of western financial “aid” go in way or another to the various PA elements and feed their personal projects under the pretext of “economical support, human rights organization etc.” while the truth is that the PA fat cats own several charities like dr. Nabil Shath and his wife, Dr. Hanan Ashrawi etc.

These people collectively love to continuously milk their western “allies” for all the money they can while at the same time they talk negatively about the EU, the USA and westerners in general among themselves. As far as these PA fat cats are concerned, the USA, the EU and all westerners are enemies, disbelievers, rich countries to be milked and the ONLY use they have for their supposed “allies” is for them to be “milked”. In short, stealing is justified by the principles of their beliefs.

Rashida Mahran who receives a salary from the PA even after death is but one example of PA corruption. And even when Rashida Mahran was alive, the money spent under her name, to pay her a salary, is another proof of corruption. Rashida Mahran was not a Palestinian in first place, but an Egyptian citizen. Secondly she was never an employee at the PA in any capacity. Her ONLY connection to the PLO and later PA is that she was one of several lovers of the late Palestinian President Arafat during about 10 years.

The third antecedent which speaks against ever having paid her a salary is that she is suspected of actually having been a spy against Palestinian interests. She infiltrated the Palestine Liberation Organization and the office of the late President Yasser Arafat. She accompanied him to Tunisia after she divorced from her husband, the retired Egyptian journalist, Mr. Anwar Saeed Bayoumi Mohamed who was an editor of the “Alexandria”, a small local newspaper in the Egyptian Alexandria district.

Dr. Rashida Mahran was a Professor at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Alexandria. In this capacity she went to the late Arafat under the pretext of writing a book about his personal life, but she soon claimed that she “fell in love” with him and was quick to move in with him. She wrote in her book “Arafat is my prophet”, an emotional book which probably was full of lies, but it made the late Arafat feel victorious about it.

The book of Dr. Mahran must have been uncomfortable to Arafat or people around him because it was soon “disappeared” from libraries and publishing houses. The presence of Dr. Mahran, and her book, were seen as an affront and a provocation by many Palestinians of the time, who suspected rightly that Dr. Mahran was an element of the Egyptian “State Security Intelligence” also known as Mukhabarat.

The Egyptian “State Security Intelligence” system was supposedly dismantled two years ago after the Egyptians revolution of January 25 2011. Specifically, it was suspected that Rashida Mahran was as an element working indirectly for foreign intelligence and that she did not fall in a real love with Arafat but actually that was her cover to move in with Arafat. What people suspected was that, while formally with the Egyptian Mukhabarat, her mission was for American and israeli intelligence interests, who control the Mukhabarat to this day by way of substantial financial “aid”.

Rashida Mahran later wrote another book about Yasser Arafat, “Abu Ammar: The Hard Figure”. She was appointed as a culture advisor to Arafat in Tunisia, a position she retained from 1986 – 1992. She lived in a castle in Tunisia and behaved as if she was the first lady of Palestine.

She also had a significant influence on Abu Ammar and his decisions about internal and personnel issues. The title “culture advisor” was granted to her by Arafat himself and allowed her to become involved in PLO business and in the work of the “Palestinian Writers and Journalists Union”.

Mahran was always around Arafat in her capacity of girl-friend or may be “secret wife”. One of the Palestinians who felt provoked by this relation was the famous late cartoonist “Naji Al-Ali[8]”, who openly criticized Abu Ammar and his iffy relation with Rashida. He described her as “a lady who is very important to Abu Ammar, who rides in his private jet and lives in a palace in Tunisia, where she has great influence on the affairs of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and its institutions”.

Al-Ali made a cartoon about Mahran which was to cost his life, as any kind of speak or speculation about her had been forbidden by Arafat. The cartoon was a dialogue between two Palestinians, the first one a poor Palestinian, the second one a rich writer or journalist. In Al-Ali’s cartoon the poor one asks the writer: “Do you know Rashida Mahran?”. The writer replies: “No”. The poor asks: “Have you ever heard of her?”. The writer replies: “No”. The poor says: “You do not know Rashida Mahran and you never heard of her! Then how did you become a member of the General Assembly of the Palestinian Writers and Journalists Union? Who supports you at the PLO, you S-O-B?”.

Al-Ali received dozens of threats from the major figures of PLO of the time after publishing his cartoon at the Kuwaiti Newspaper Al-Qabas, for which he was stationed as a correspondent in London. He was shot in the head on 27 August 1987 in London while going to work at the office of Al Qabas.

The assassination of Al-Ali, and probably also the cartoon, had negative impact on Dr. Mahran who left Tunisia after several years and returned to her homeland Egypt. Many years later, I was to find out that Rashida Mahran still receives a salary from the Palestinian Authority as a “Culture Advisor”, three moths after her death.

Dr. Mahran did not marry after she left Arafat. Prior to her affair with Arafat she gave birth to three children from her husband, whom she divorced before going to Tunisia to write about Arafat. Khalid Anwar Saeed was born 08.09.1957 and works as the captain of a commercial vessel. Amal Anwar Saeed was born on 08/02/1960 and received Bachelor of Arts degree and is now divorced. The third daughter, Nafisa Anwar Saeed, lives at the house of her deceased mother in Stanley, Al-Raml, Alexandria.

According to various sources, among them the Book of Dib Ali Hassan, “The Presidents and Kings Lovers”, the late Palestinian President Arafat had other three mistresses before he married Suha Al-Tawil. They were:

Samira Jarbou, who married Arafat in secret and then he left her. From other sources I found that Jarbou was the ambassador of Palestine in Tunisia. Abbas later moved her to the Palestinian embassy in Rome as the first “Senior Advisor Representative to the F.A.O.”. I am not sure if Ambassador Jarbou was the same woman who was mentioned in the book of Mr. Hassan, “The Presidents and Kings Lovers” or if there was another woman who carried the same name???

Nada Yashrati, also known as Nada Abu Ghneme Yashtrati, a Jordanian resistance figure and the daughter of the Jordanian resistance fighter, Subhi Abu Ghneme. She joined the ranks of the Palestinian resistance in Lebanon, where she met and married her husband Khaled Yashrati, an Engineer and a famous figure of the Fatah, who was elected at the sixth session of the Palestinian National Council as Chairman of the Palestinian National Fund after the resignation of the previous President, Abed El Majeed Shoman.

Nada’s husband was killed during an inspection tour at one of the buildings which he built as an engineer. A big rock was thrown on his head while he standing outside of the building. It was suspected that the murderer had been engaged by Arafat, who wanted to keep Nada to himself. Arafat loved Nada Yashrati, who at the time worked at the Palestinian Women’s Union in Beirut. She reportedly also fell in love with him but she refused his marriage proposal. According to a contradictory version of the story, some Palestinians point out that Nada accepted to marry Arafat, but before the marriage could be carried out she was murdered (shot in head) at the end of April 1973 while standing at the entrance of her house in Lebanon.

Umm Naser, Najla Adel Yassin: the former director of the Office of the late Arafat. She lived with Arafat 18 years at the neighborhood of Al-Manar aristocrat in Tunisia without having children. She received millions from the late president while living and working with him. She bought a building in “Misser Al-Jadida” in Egypt where she lives now. She receives monthly salary from the PA until today.

Rashida Mahran: Cultural Advisor to Late President Arafat

In reaction to the article about the late Dr. Rashida Mahran, I recently received clarifying information which from Ms. Amal Anwar Saeed, her daughter, who lives in Egypt. This article is an update to my past writings about Dr. Rashida Mahran.

Rashida Mahran

Ms. Saeed stated that the PA transferred two months’ pension after the death of her mother from the Palestinian Authority after her death. Saeed also said that her mother had suffered many troubles in recent years and before her death due to the constant delays on part of the PA in the payment of her pension.

Ms. Saeed also denied that her mother Dr. Mahran had worked for any intelligence services, saying instead that her mother had been an academic and a professor. According to Saeed, she finished her studies at University of Alexandria in Egypt, where she got a master’s degree and a doctorate, and later worked as a professor at the same university. According to her, the University of Alexandria allowed her mother to work at the PA with the late President Yasser Arafat, where she she received a position as a cultural advisor to Arafat.

Ms. Saeed stated that her mother “held sacred” the late Palestinian President Arafat and that she “worshiped him like a God”. According to Saeed, her mother wrote a book titled “Abu Ammar the Unbreakable” (Arabic: بو عمار الرقم الصعب). She added that her mother had already worked very hard for the sake of Palestine and the Palestinians before her meeting with Arafat. Her articles in support of the Palestinian cause were published in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas and in Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, which is published through the Middle East.

Ms. Saeed also stated that she and all her brothers loved President Arafat and they had been “like a family”. Ms. Saeed considers the late President Arafat as more than a father, and according to her, to this day she reads the Al-Fatihah prayer from the Holy Quran in memory of the late the President Arafat before going to sleep. Ms. Saeed kindly sent me a family picture of her mother, herself, brother and sons with the late President Arafat. This historic photo is published here as it shows a rare glimpse into the private life of the President and the team who worked with him. I wish to thank Ms. Saeed and her family for their kindness and for allowing that this private information becomes published.